West Australian Opera

The West Australian Opera has been nurturing artistic talent for more than 40 years. Philanthropic mentoring is helping them tour extensively throughout regional Western Australia and give school children the experience of live opera.

The company has been built on the support of the community. Over the last 40 years, people have generously invested in their passion for opera – through giving their time, money and energy to the development of the art form and the West Australian Opera Company. It is within this context that the giving program was developed.  

The West Australian Opera began as a participant of Artsupport Australia’s major performing arts board Philanthropy Mentoring Program in 2006. With mentor Kenneth Watkins, director,endowment and private giving for The Australia Ballet guiding them the West Australian Opera launched its annual giving program in February 2007.

Alecia Benzie, giving manager of the WAO said "Artsupport Australia has provided invaluable support through the provision of a mentor to assist us in the start up phase of the programme. Our mentor has provided advice and support as and when required and has played an important role in the development and focus of the programme".  The program is ongoing and designed to support the Company’s range of activities which include:

• continuing to perform at the highest possible level in main house seasons at His Majesty’s Theatre
• developing our Young and Emerging Artists to give young singers the opportunity to gain experience and develop their voice, languages, stagecraft and repertoire in a professional but nurturing environment  
• providing performance opportunities to our 32 member chorus
• education program for school age children, giving them access to live opera
• presentation of the annual ‘Opera in the Park’ – a free concert for 15, 000 people
• touring extensively to regional centres across the State.

A primary goal of the program is to building strong relationships with our donors so they become part of the ‘opera family’ through regular communication and exclusive events.

Benzie concludes "As a result of this focus, we now have closer ties with our existing donors and they have commented on how much they have enjoyed being part of this program.  We have also brought in new donors. We started from a small base, however, donor income has grown nearly five fold from the annual average of the past five years".